To the editor:

The author of the Saturday Column expressed, several times, the idea that opposition to the Patriot Act equaled a denial of the terrorist problem. He claimed that the city commissioners, in approving a resolution opposing specific details in the Patriot Act, thereby denied the terrorist problem and were aiding terrorist plans to “get Americans to question whether their government can protect them.”

I would remind the author that this was the same argument used by Joseph McCarthy and his supporters to get the Un-American Activities inquiries under way. Here we only need to substitute the term terrorist for McCarthy’s term, which was communist. Again, this was one of the arguments used against the Vietnam War opponents. The idea is that if you oppose anything the government wants to do you are unpatriotic and denying the problem.

I feel that the promotion of arguments that do nothing to address the public concerns about the Patriot Act and that belittle the efforts of our city commissioners are counterproductive. I think our responsive, responsible and hardworking commissioners deserve an apology.

Stewart Nowlin,

Lawrence